Two years ago, we installed a solar array on the roof of our truck camper. The ten-panel array looks impressive. But how efficient is it, really? Today, we are reviewing the amps, volts, and watts yielded to determine how efficient our solar setup really is.
Before assembling our DIY lithium battery we are optimizing our battery cells for solar panel charging by top balancing our battery cells.
To know how large of an electrical system we need, we need to estimate our consumption. It's a task that seems simple at first, until you really sit down to think through all the variables. To know our power draw, we need to know what appliances we will be using but we are holding off on buying those high ticket items until we have our power system in place. So, this is a process of educated guesses and many rabbit holes. Many of the numbers in this post are derived from much more involved research broken out in other posts. But here is as close to a summary as I, the obsessive documenter, can manage.
An important part in optimizing one's electrical system for boondocking is knowing what one's consumptions will be. If one already has the experience of being on the road, all one needs to do is monitor one's consumption. Sure, we have been nomads for 2 years. But that has been a matter of cooking over camp fires and working in coffee shops, libraries, or truck stops. To guess at our battery usage with all the conveniences of an RV, we an run the numbers to get a vague idea of what is to come.
I bought my MacBook Air back in 2013 because it was lightweight and had a long battery life. Yet, no matter how long that battery life may be, it’s never going to be long enough to not require recharging while…
In which I tackle everything electrical in a truck camper or RV: batteries, converters, inverters, fuse boxes, surge protectors, wire gauges, and much more.